Intrinsic activity and poisoning rate for HCOOH oxidation at Pt(100) and vicinal surfaces containing monoatomic (111) steps.

Pulsed voltammetry is used to study formic acid oxidation on Pt(2n-1,1,1) surfaces and determine the effects of the size of the (100) terrace and the (111) step density on the reaction mechanism. The intrinsic activity of the electrode through the active intermediate reaction path (j(theta=) (0)), as well as the rate constant for the CO formation (k(ads)), are calculated from the current transients obtained at different potentials. For surfaces with wide terraces, j(theta=) (0) and k(ads) are almost insensitive to the step density, which suggests that step and terrace sites have a similar activity for this reaction. For narrow terraces (n<6), the intrinsic activity diminishes. The dependence of the reaction rates on the electrode potential is also elucidated. The CO formation only takes place in a narrow potential window, very close to the potential of zero total charge, while the direct oxidation takes place even when the surface is covered by anions. The different behavior for both reactions suggests that the adsorption mode of formic acid is different for each path.